Love Outside Andromeda

Sianna Lee is at home sharing the company of a few girlfriends, one of whom is having boy troubles; a painful path Lee not only knows all too well herself, but a journey that she has so explicitly expressed in song format for all to publicly scrutinise.

Today, however, rather than dramatically scream out words designed to chop down the offending bastard, the girls decided to soothe this latest crisis with generous serves of banana-splits; a remedy Lee informs me, in-between mouthfuls, as being "Comfort food".

Oddly enough, the album that Lee is on the phone to talk about, Love Outside Andromeda's second album 'Longing Was A Safe Place To Hide', hadn't arrived here as yet. This left me to conduct this interview on the basis of an article that I read from a major glossy magazine which painted Lee as currently being much happier and free of her vitriolic vengeful ways than that on LOA's eponymous debut.

"I can't remember what was said [in that article]," ponders Lee, "but I do feel a lot better these days than I used to. Like, the space I was in when I wrote the first album was unstable, I guess that would be a good way to put it. Not that I thought that at the time, as I thought the songs were great, but as I said before, I wasn't really prepared for the social ramifications of writing like that and how that would affect the perception that people would have of me. But that was more within the industry and among my peers," she clarifies, not retracting her comment so much as limiting the potential fallout.

"In terms of my writing style," she says, "I don't think that I had any moments where I thought, 'oh look, I can't write that', or where I tried to stop or censor myself in any way. But it's now where I'm in the process of doing interviews, if I don't feel comfortable about going into certain details about things then I won't. I now feel more guarded because sometimes I feel it best to leave some things open to interpretation because it's also best for my piece of mind, as well as those people that I'm writing about. The two songs that you've heard are probably not representative of the entire mood of the album," she says with foreboding, "there's kind of a lot more upbeat and acoustic, sparse stripped-back stuff on the album. Yeah, I think in terms of how the songs were written there's also a lot more thought gone into the structure where we played around with different ways. Like, there's a lot of keyboards, some horn arrangements and there's a choir on there too," she enthuses, yet warily. "And Joe [Hammond, drums] has written some lyrics, and Joe and Jamie [Slocombe, guitar/vocals] have written some music, so there's been a lot more collaboration on this record.

"One song, Hook In My Throat, which is just me, an acoustic guitar, some brushes and a cello is one that I actually hoped to put on our first album, so there's still some songs that are kind of from that period." Love Outside Andromeda are now back on the road to promote their latest portrait and Lee genuinely sounds excited by their extensive upcoming travels.

"I'm really looking forward to this tour," she tells me, "I don't think there's that kind of trepidation [this time]. Like, I'm not scared of touring and I'm really looking forward to performing, which is something that I don't remember feeling before. It's taken me a very long time to be able to loosen up and be able to detach from it and realise that it's just a performance and that also the people who come to our shows are not there to judge me; they're there because they like what I do and they want me to do well."

Belatedly, a copy of 'Longing Was A Safe Place To Hide' finally came my way and yes, it did take several listens to find some kinship with the album, but with all good things the rewards are well worth it.

Meanwhile, I resist Lee's offer to call her back to discuss her new songs further; because as she says, "It's best to leave some things open to interpretation."

Steve Jones

Love Outside Andromeda play at the Governor Hindmarsh on Fri 20 October. 'Longing Was A Safe Place To Hide' is out now through Shock.